Gremlins 4-13-84


This is a late stage prototype for Gremlins that was recovered from programmer John Segher's development disks.  While all the gameplay is preset the sounds and music are completely absent.  This version also has numerous bugs and glitches that needed to be hammered out in the final month of development.  The title screen graphics are also missing with a simple text placeholder in their place.


Prototype Differences
The title screen has no graphics, just a text placeholder

The text is a lighter shade of purple

The color palette is different.  The main color is olive green instead of brown.
There is no music
There are no sounds
There is a glitch in the border by the flash bulb counter
The icon when Billy has picked up a Mogwai is different and is a single color
Billy starts moving automatically to the upper left when the game starts.  This can be fixed by quickly moving the joystick around so the game calibrates it correctly
The Mogwai graphics glitch when moving in the cage
On the higher levels with lots of items and Gremlins the screen will blink several times at the start as the game is calculating where to place everything.  The final version solves this problem by blanking the screen until everything is ready.
As a side effect of the above issue, the clock continues to count while the screen is blinking so you have less time to complete the level (for example Level 23 starts at 12:13 instead of 12:10)
There is no fade out/fade in effect between lives
There is no fade out/fade in effect between levels
The screen doesn't start getting lighter as dawn approaches
The top HUD is not displayed on the Game Over screen

 

A fairly spartan title screen

 

Different colors

 


You ok in there buddy?



The Mogwi icon is different



The game is calculating where to put the objects


It's 5:58 but the screen isn't getting lighter

 

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